Voters looking for a reason to support or oppose a candidate will find new ammunition in the first-ever “National Food Policy Scorecard,” created by a coalition of non-profits including environmental advocates, anti-hunger groups and activists including “Top Chef’s” lead judge and restauranteur Tom Colicchio.

“I don’t think the average person thinks this stuff through,” says Colicchio, who sees a link between government policy and what families put on the table. “When you see people who are struggling, and buying fast food for kids, it’s not because they think it’s great for you. It’s because it’s cheap. And it’s cheap because the government subsidizes corn, wheat and soy. That’s what we’re supporting with our tax dollars. What if we took that money and put it towards farmers growing fresh, organic vegetables?”
The new coalition is organized as a 501(c)(4) organization, under the name “Food Policy Action.” A 501(c)(4) can actively lobby members of Congress and is not considered a charity.

The group rated members of Congress on 14 House votes and 18 Senate votes on issues including farm subsidies, food safety, nutrition, organic food production and anti-hunger policies. They also scored votes involving animal welfare and farm labor.

The members are generally aligned with liberal causes, and the new rankings are heavily tilted towards Democrats.

Thirty-five Democratic Senators received higher scores than the top-ranking Republican, Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts, while 130 Democratic House members scored better than the highest-rated Republicans, Rep. Jon Runyan and Rep. Frank LoBiondo – both from New Jersey.

On the other end, 31 Senate Republicans rank below the group’s lowest-rated Democrat, Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri. Two hundred four of the 242 House Republicans scored below the lowest-rated Democratic congressman, Rep. Jason Altmire of Pennsylvania.

Colicchio says food policy wasn’t always a partisan issue, and points to the close partnership in the early 1970s, between senators Bob Dole (R-Kansas) and the late George McGovern (D-South Dakota), who died this week at age 90. That partnership led to a massive expansion of the food stamp program.

“They saw children dying of starvation, and they were furious about what they saw,” says Colicchio. “They pretty much eradicated hunger until the 1980s.”

Colicchio, whose mother ran a school lunch program in Elizabeth, New Jersey, notes that food policy wasn’t even mentioned in the presidential debates. He says Food Policy Action's first goal is to grab a seat at the table.

“There’s a problem out there that can be fixed, and if enough people believe this is a problem, then I hope those people can get their representatives to pay attention to this.”

Here in DC, we pay an extra 5 cents if we want a bag for our items. They never tell us about the tax until after we've paid for items we cannot possibly carry and people usually don't carry change. This means the Starbucks clerk gets annoyed when we want to run our credit card through again for 5 cents.

A local newspaper recommended as chic to women paying $2,300 for 700 square feet of space that they store their shoes in their ovens.

When have we turned into the Ukraine? No one wants to talk about it because they're afraid our feel-good politician won't see 4 more years in the White House.

They charge a bag fee to deter you from using the plastic bags, which usually end up in the landfill after one use (though some people reuse them as garbage bags). It's not your president who told the clerks not to inform you of bag fees, put the blame where it belongs.

This is ridiculous and insulting. While CNN postulates that food production is somehow tied to presidential voting, and shows us how Obama is going gray over the years, there was a 3rd party debate amongst four other candidates for president, possibly showing a different view of our political landscape, that was completely ignored by CNN. If CNN truly wants to inform people about their choices for president, they would have at least given us a recap story this morning. For those who don't think the media controls the elections, think again.

Why is this ridiculous when a corporation like Monsanto owns 90% of all seed production in the world and tries to manipulate governments into accepting it's bio-engineered growd ormones which have been proven to cause cancer and have been banned by most governments.

R u kidding, food should be a top priority, if you haven't noticed without food humans die. Our food system is out of control. This is what happens when big business can do whatever they want. Industrialized food, processed and fast food are brainwashing the world. Yea, food doesn't matter. People have forgotten we can survive as we did for many years before we had Frankenstein food and I don't want to hear poor people cannot afford food, they cannot afford not to eat fruits, vegetables and beans. Anyway, the meat & poultry is so full of antibiotics and whatever stuff the livestock is eating who really believes they are eating something healthy. Support your local farmer. Food does matter and it is political!

Sure, if you give high scores for making large federal programs about anything- food or otherwise- then of course Dems will score well. That's a false assumption, though. Ask who thinks people ought to be more self-sufficient, such as by growing some of what they eat, and you'll find very different numbers. Ask who thinks that parents ought to control what kids have for lunch, rather than school officials, and you'll find a reversed score.

Do you not realize that a HUGE part of our country is either desert or very mountainous? Or so far north that the growing season is too short for a lot of garden crops? Or too hot to grow much.....not to mention water conservation bans. How do you propose these people "grow what they eat"? Besides which- in the "flyover Midwest" most of us DO have gardens & contribute by growing some of our own food......not to mention also hunting for our own meat. I've even heard of food pantry's being given fresh road kill deer to use to feed the hungry. But people need to eat every day......or would you rather see them starve?

By the way.........if you really want to totally control over what your kids eat at school- why not go for full personal responsibility & home school them yourself? If you extrapolate that out- why should I pay to educate & feed your kids at all?

If you eat Bark from a tree for five years without any adding anything to it, it could reduce your dependance upon oil in the middle east. See if that affects your vote. Articles like these don't make any since at all. Just something to write about.

It won't affect my vote, but, I am hoping this issue will persuade voters in California to pass Prop. 37. How great would it be to force food producers to actually label the products that contain GMOs?

Mr. Romney can't do any of the things you suggest unilaterally. He needs a Congress to approve FIRST. Get a grip. Also, Texas not funding Planned Parent Hood is because PPH funds abortions. All PPH has to do is to stop offering funding for abortions and the rest would be funded. It's a standoff. Those who are angry about the PPH as a whole, should be mad at PPH for not giving in on the abortion issue. If they would use contraception, they would not need the abortion. Educate and you have the right path.

“When you see people who are struggling, and buying fast food for kids, it’s not because they think it’s great for you. It’s because it’s cheap..."

NO! It's because the parent(s) are too lazy to dump a $1.49 bag of lentils and a handful of rice into a pot of water to make enough food for the entire family (for a fraction of the cost of fast food).

Lentils? Are you kidding? I realize that a lot of people like them and can eat pulses (dried beans), but many cannot. Personally, they wreak havok on my whole body, even if they are soaked overnight. Grains, particularly wheat, are even worse. My autoimmune disorder goes nuts, and my family's allergies are greatly affected. I do agree that fast food is not an answer, those same foods are dominant at your local burger doodle, however, we do struggle to find safe healthful food for our family. I do plant lots of green veggies, and we have chickens for eggs, but meat and fruit are expensive. Beans and rice may be the answer for many, I know growing up that we went weeks with nothing but butter beans and rice, but it's not an option now...not for me and not for many others.

Sari, you're one person that has some issues with food. Most people don't have these issues. Stop making it personal and making excuses for lazy schlubs that should be fixing meals for their kids with healthy, whole foods instead of feeding them crap from a drive-thru.

I've actually saved money by preparing meals at home from mostly whole foods...and lost over 100 pounds in the process. It CAN be done...and as far as food allergies are concerned, then work around that (I have to be mindful of foods rich in vitamin K, due to medication issues). There are plenty of ways to cook easy, healthy meals if you put in a little effort and planning.

The majority of people needing help with food stamps & subsidies are actually working- most with 2 or 3 jobs- trying to make ends meet financially. Running from job to job- taking care of a house, kids, laundry, bills, maybe even parents.......how on earth is a woman supposed to then find the time or energy to go home & cook a family meal from scratch?!!!! I came from the "Super Mom" generation who tried to do just that.......I ruined my health & ended up not being able to work at all. Fast food is eaten not because it's cheap (have you priced it lately?)- but because it is FAST.

"“When you see people who are struggling, and buying fast food for kids, it’s not because they think it’s great for you. It’s because it’s cheap."

If they're really struggling, they are not buying fast food. People buy fast food because it's easy. Because they don't have to cook it. But it is more expensive to buy than just making a meal for the family. I have a family of 6. A trip to McDonalds, even after buying off the dollar menu, runs about $30. For $30 I could buy enough food to make more than just one meal and when folks are struggling that is the only option. Fast food is not an option.

Agreed! I am sick of hearing the excuses made for lazy people. People are feeding their kids drive thru food on a daily because they are LAZY, pure and simple. A 50 lb bag of rice from Sam's costs $18 where I live. Dried beans in 1 or 2 lb bags are only $2 or $3 bucks and there are an almost endless variety. Don't like beans or rice? Fine, dried pasta and simple tomato sauces are pretty darned cheap as well. I can feed my family for a week on what it costs for ONE trip through a drive thru. The difference is that I'm not too lazy to plan and cook a meal on top of working 50+ hrs a week at my job.

People who don't think food is political are grossly uneducated on the matter. Food subsidies are highly political. Monsanto pays exhorbitant amounts in lobbying campaigns and cover-ups of negative test results for its toxic food products. If Syria's Assad bans GMOs for the good of public health and the U.S. won't because government officials and organizations like the FDA and EPA are clearly beholden to the biotech food industry for economic gain, then there is a huge problem with U.S. politics and the uneducated electorate who think it's just something about which to write. The government should refocus its food policies on healthy changes that matter so that families can afford to eat healthier, non-GMO, processed foods. It is a trickle down matter as well–poor nutrition from cheap/GMO/processed foods leads to higher health care costs. Greater processed/GMO food production has greater dependence on petroleum. Food subsidies, health care impact, petroleum dependence–food policy IS relevant to politics.

Has anyone realized how many people around you are now struggling with so called "diverticulitis"? Or is it food poisoning? or sensitivity to GMO's? I personally know that the doctors CANNOT tell you what is causing it- they just send you to the surgeon to have part of your gut cut out. I have known many people around me struggling with this this summer (including a guy in his 20's) & when you talk to people around town, many pipe up with stories of their relatives or friends who are going through the same thing. This is not normal.

I can't find said scorecard, but I can tell you it's largely bogus. We vale cheap, available food over healthy food. We value preventing short term, even deadly infections over long term health and viability [read raw milk]. We demonize calories, fat, and sugar, yet we don't know why. None of these panel members have a handle on hyperinsulinemia. It's more of the same stupid ADA eat a whole grain, heart healthy diet that will only make you fat, give you a suite of western diseases. Then they will blame you for eating poorly instead of the systems they rate at 93 percent. It's anotherentrenchment of bad food systems.

Not sure I understand your 'raw milk' reference. I'm right there when it comes to natural, non-played with food.......but my entire family were dairy farmers before pastuerization. Most didn't die right away from TB...but die young they did. The only one to live to old age was my grandfather- but he did die of TB in a sanitarium. Not a nice way to go. This was the usual case before the laws were put in place. I'm sure we all want as whole food as possible- but we also want safe food. Same goes for spreading e-coli manure as fertilizer on our "organic" crops. Just because it's organic doesn't mean we don't have to take some care.

Milk is controversial. Many claim that pasteurization destroys the natural proteins, and the resulting product may actually hurt us. The popular blog experiement of raising a calf on each is alarming; though they admit unscientific. We won't die of acute poisoning by consuming refined, pasteurized, sterilized foods, but do we really understand teh long term health effects? The science blaming animal products for heart disease, cancers, and brain ailments is non-existent, yet we've demoonized them and drive the message home mercilessly. All I really know ismy health, my lipid profile, and my diabetes have improved incredibly by eating whole foods, non-grains, and no milk. I am convinced mainstream has it all wrong.

Can modern facilities process raw milk safely? Not likely. And that's a comment on human stupidity, not the raw product.

I like the idea of fresh organic vegetables but why not just pay for them if you consume them. Why do we subsidize anything? You want a phone you buy it. You want a new car you buy it. You want a new washer/dryer you buy it. All these programs to give some people discounts on stuff is just bs.

I don't understand your post. Organic foods are not currently being subsidized. The GMO crops are. Subsidies are an incentive for more farmers to grow certain crops, which in turn makes it more readily available to the public at a reduced cost. So are you for GMO crops being affordable and healthier organically grown crops being super expensive? I'm certainly not!

@Cathy, The food crops that are subsidized are almost always done so because they provide important materials for industry, like corn for ethanol and soybeans for all kinds of things. The subsidies go to the farmers not the consumers.

@Chris, GMO crops are subsidized because they are significantly cheaper to grow than organic crops. There is no reason why GMO corn should not be made into ethanol, which is added to gasoline to make it cheaper and burn cleaner. On that note if you can prove how GMO plant products are harmful for people to consume I'm all ears. Everyone says they cause cancer but nobody seems to know any studies that claim comes from.

@medschoolkid, I never said GMO crops cause cancer. I said organic crops are healthier. Certain GMO crops have less vitamin content (and flavor) than their organic counterparts. Do they cause illness? I have no idea and certainly don't claim to. However I can tell you what my taste buds have proven, the vegetables from my garden taste a whole lot better than the tasteless ones from the grocery store. I had done plenty of research on my own of the nutritional value of GMO vs organic crops as well as the farming methods themselves. The methods GMO farming uses, combined with the heavy use of pesticides, is not healthy for anything or anyone! But I am not trying to convince you. I've found that most people have a preconceived idea that they hunt for facts to support instead of being open minded and doing their own research, or growing their own food to compare. Eat the GMO foods, that is fine with me. I am sticking with what I truly believe to be healthier. I'm not the kind of person to consume chemicals and pesticides and then wait for the FDA to finally decide that it isn't safe. I am responsible ultimately for my health. But I respect your opinion and right to eat whatever you feel is safe for you and your family.

@Chris – Sorry if I was not clear. I know organic food is not subsidized. I was questioning why we have to subsidize anything. I chose organic food and grass fed beef as much as I can since I do believe they are healthier but that is my choice and I am willing to pay more for it. If the government wants to pay so I can get that good food cheaper that's great but it is not magical money and it comes from somewhere. I personally would like GMO's to go away and I avoid them whenever I can.

@medschoolkid – I know the money goes to the farmer but the idea is it makes it cheper for the consumer as shown in the quote below from the article.

“When you see people who are struggling, and buying fast food for kids, it’s not because they think it’s great for you. It’s because it’s cheap. And it’s cheap because the government subsidizes corn, wheat and soy. That’s what we’re supporting with our tax dollars.

Anyone who buys fast food for the sake of "saving money" deserves absolutely no sympathy. It is still cheaper to cook for yourself. If you aren't required by your budget to figure that out naturally, you're not in real financial trouble. Quit your whining, stop being lazy, and save your money by not being foolish with it. It's not that hard.

Food is a neccesity in our lives in order to live, to provide for our children, grandchildren, and ourselves. We need food in order to make sure that we all have the nuttrions that are needed in order to grow, learn and thrive in life. Without basic the foods, you cannot survive. These are "God" provisions, not Romnesias.

Romney doesn't care if 47% of the country has food, so yes food does apply to the person who you are voting for.

It's not just about having affordable foods, we need safe foods that are brought into our country, that are being grown with less chemicals and that can provide us more nutrition that what we are getting. What we are getting at the current time, is junk food is more affordable than the healthy foods that we all need and should be eating. Foods that are loaded down, with salt ,sugar, fat ect.. in which is the leading cause sto weight gain, diabetics, hyper tension ect...

Food does matter and it's a real issue in our country as also in other countries.

When, year after year, we send BILLIONS of dollars to wealthy, millionaire farmers in the form of "farm subsidies" (read farm welfare) and we hear not a peep of dissent from those on the right........but they scream bloody murder if hungry people (and children) get food help- something is seriously wrong with our country! We could solve this problem very easily. The wealthy business employers from now on would have to pay their workers all a LIVING WAGE. All welfare of any kind ceases. The people who work now can afford to house, clothe & feed their own families from the fruit of their own labor. The wealthy no longer have to "support" them & probably have lower taxes, since the burden of the welfare programs is gone from government. Win/ win!!

I want to stress "laziness" is a symptom of DEPRESSION, a medical condition. Those people are poor uneducated and depressed. They need someone's help to move them out of poverty and educate them. Europe has special programs to pull people from poverty, to help them but also to profit the whole society by reducing poverty. In Europe poverty is below 5%, in US above 15%!!! Why Americans can't do the same for their own sake?!!!

I grew up in the 60's eating lots of fish. Now I can not eat fish (not shellfish) like Salmon, Cod, etc... or my respiratory system goes nuts, sneezing and coughing and I vomit. I since have figured out this only happens with farm raised fish. most farm raised fish are GMO to grow quicker. I try to eat organic and non processed. Move to growing your own and having smaller local farms. we so not need corporate farming. Cities need to make parks/gardens for communities to grow food. We need to consider farm raised fish without the growth hormones added. I also want to have the choice to drink nonpasturized dairy. make sanitation laws for dairy instead of chemically altering the milk.

I do agree that like many things that are of great necessity government has a big say so on what happens. The subsidizing of unhealthy ingredients, I prefer to call them fillings, does impact the consumer’s choices based of price and not the nutritional value. However, like a million things in this world, trends lead to change in preference and major changes in policy. The problem is not only solved by appointing those who want a change, change will occur when America opens their eyes to the fact that their poor choices of food will result in chronic disease and even death. Government can subsidize and push healthy, organic, and fresh food all they want, that does not mean that the food addiction towards fat, sugar, and salt will change in those who have fallen in the cycle of easy and fast food. Education is the way to change the bad habits that have been built through the years(1). Government has plenty of sources to improve our health, first the food labeling act. Government has made it mandatory for every food product to show consumers ingredients, nutritional value, and even show us the daily value that the food has towards our nutritional needs(1). Also the food stamp program helps those who cannot afford food, I highly doubt that government restricts purchases to chips and soda. Choices are being made by the public not by government. By educating the public on nutrition and health we can start to see changes in the preferences of consumers, and I am sure that once that change is seen the food companies will be quick to follow in those foot steps to increase income. But as long as demand is towards the cheap and unhealthy and money is flowing in why would they change how they do business?
Reference:
(1)-Pauline M Ippolito, How government policies shape the food and nutrition information environment, Food Policy, Volume 24, Issues 2–3, May 1999, Pages 295-306, ISSN 0306-9192, 10.1016/S0306-9192(99)00025-1.
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306919299000251)

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Food prices have risen faster in recent years than ever before. As many of us are feeling the pinch, it is time to reevaluate some of our food purchases. The term “organic” has been thrown around in the shopping aisles like sprinkles on the jelly donut you’re trying to avoid. It seems like hundreds of new “organic” products have emerged, all with a price tag about 30% higher than the regular option. Is it really worth the extra money, or are we all being duped with a clever marketing.visit us:http://www.cheflead.com/

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